In the construction of buildings having exterior finishes of stucco, or the like, is necessary to preserve the integrity of the over-applied stucco finish in the transition area where two dissimilar materials, such as wood and concrete meet. This area of transition is commonly termed the floor line. As a result of the different coefficients of expansion between the concrete portion and the wood portion, a flexible joint is sometimes provided to accommodate movement that occurs between these two portions of the structure. Such flexible joints are commonly referred to as transition joints or control beads. As the floor line typically extends around the entire periphery or a large potion of a structure, the transition joints are typically supplied in long lengths to facilitate rapid covering of the floor line.
A transition joint for use on the exterior wall of a building was disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/324,996, which is commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention and the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto. The transition joint disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/324,996 included a first and second vertical flange separated by a generally W-shaped central portion including a first, second, third, and fourth leg. The area between the third and fourth legs included a first transition zone. A longitudinal drip edge was provided extending downward from the first transition zone and a bulbous longitudinal eyebrow was provided extending downward from the fourth leg of the W-shaped central portion. The longitudinal drip edge provided a place for rain or condensation to gather and drop without infiltrating the transition joint. The bulbous longitudinal eyebrow provided a structure for increasing adhesion of stucco to the second vertical flange and to the area underneath the W-shaped central portion.
Although the transition joint described in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/324,996 did include better water shedding abilities and did improve the adhesion of stucco to the second vertical flange, further improvement in the performance of the transition joint are effected by increasing the length of the drip edge, replacing the bulbous eyebrow with a T-shaped member to include more surface area and more convoluted surfaces for adhering to stucco, and the inclusion of a floor line alignment guide for enabling an installer to accurately align the transition joint with the floor line to enable an accurate installation on the building to insure that the transition joint is properly positioned to allow moisture to migrate down and be shed away from the wall.